Many medical treatment procedures or techniques for treating various different eye conditions comprise processes, techniques, or methods for delivering medications or fluids to the eye in order to, for example, provide drug delivery to the eye or to remove materials or various substances from the eye. In connection with corneal collagen crosslinking procedures or techniques, for example, it is desired to frequently administer riboflavin to the eye. In accordance with such procedures, the riboflavin is typically dropped onto the eye every 1-5 minutes for a period of time extending between 20-30 minutes. Other medications or fluids, which may be utilized for treating other various different ocular conditions, such as, for example, infectious keratitis, which is an inflammation of the cornea caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and/or parasites, may comprise various antibiotics or anti-fungal agents. These fluids also often need to be applied to the eye several times within a 30 minute period. Current procedural techniques involve the frequent application of drops to the eye, or the use of high volumes of such fluids to the eye employing various irrigation systems comprising a feeding bottle fluidically connected to a contact lens-like device with, open flow irrigation.
In view of the fact that many of the medications or fluids, that are particularly preferred for use in connection with the treatment of the aforenoted ocular conditions, may be in relatively short supply, and/or may be relatively expensive, it is desirable to retain a predetermined amount of the medication or fluid upon the cornea during the treatment procedure. In addition, because of the labor-intensive nature characteristic of the frequent drop administration procedures, which are necessarily performed by trained medical personnel, such procedures tend to be relatively costly. Accordingly, it would be desirable if procedures, techniques, or methods could be developed, and apparatus or a system for implementing such procedures, techniques, or methods, which would require less frequent human intervention. Furthermore, many of the medication or fluid application procedures require the patient to maintain his or her head in a predetermined position, or to maintain the eyes in a fixed mode, such as, for example, looking straight ahead, or still further, to have their eyelids held open for relatively long periods of time. All of these procedures may result in some level of discomfort to the patient, which is obviously not ideal.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved method, and a system or apparatus for implementing such method, for delivering medications or fluids to the eye that will resolve the aforenoted problems or drawbacks characteristic of the current state of the art and that will achieve the following overall objectives. More particularly, a need exists in the art for a new and improved method, and a system or apparatus for implementing such method, for delivering medications or fluids to the eye which will be cost effective, which will be significantly more comfortable for the patient, and which will enable a sufficient amount of medication or fluid to effectively be constantly or continuously delivered or applied to the eye.